I caught up with the big boss today and talked through delegation. Good times. Here is a summary of 10 levels of delegation:
- “Wait to be told.” or “Do exactly what I say.” or “Follow these instructions precisely.”
- “Look into this and tell me the situation. I’ll decide.”
- “Look into this and tell me the situation. We’ll decide together.”
- “Tell me the situation and what help you need from me in assessing and handling it. Then we’ll decide.”
- “Give me your analysis of the situation (reasons, options, pros and cons) and recommendation. I’ll let you know whether you can go ahead.”
- “Decide and let me know your decision, and wait for my go-ahead before proceeding.”
- “Decide and let me know your decision, then go ahead unless I say not to.”
- “Decide and take action – let me know what you did (and what happened).”
- “Decide and take action. You need not check back with me.”
- “Decide where action needs to be taken and manage the situation accordingly. It’s your area of responsibility now.”
Read more info on each here
In order to grow a ministry (or business or whatever) I think leaders need to be effective in delegation. I’m getting better at it…
What’s the deal with your delegation skills… good… bad… or ugly?
“I caught up with the big boss today and talked through delegation.“
You caught up with God and chatted about delegation? hehe…just kidding…
I’m starting to get better at delegating things. My natural personality / tendancy is to want to maintain a high level of control (as I tend to be a perfectionist and want to make sure that things are ‘right’), but the reality is that when you do this your team doesn’t function effectively.
Firstly it means that you end up with a whole lot to do, while there might be other capable people not doing very much.
Secondly, in a team setting delegating tasks actually helps the rest of the team to ‘own’ what is going on. If they are involved in the decisions and carrying that stuff out then they are much more likely to be enthusiastic about what you are trying to achieve. If you’re not delegating stuff to your team, I think it can also be an indicator that perhaps there isn’t yet the desired levels of trust within the team.
I guess ultimately (in a ministry context) it’s not really ‘our’ work anyway – we could say that God has already delegated the task to us…